Agricultural harvesting heads such as corn heads or draper heads that are mounted on agricultural combines are prone to be filed by accumulations of crop plants. One particular problem area is crop dividers.
Crop dividers are typically pointed plastic structures that extend forward in the direction of travel and divide the crop the way a comb divides hair. They split the crop planted in the ground into two portions: a portion that is directed into the harvesting apparatus for harvesting, and a portion that remains standing in the field for harvesting in a later pass through the field.
Crops such as corn may become tangled in their upper reaches and thus are not easily divided around the crop divider. As a result, the plants are uprooted rather than divided and they fold across the top and down the sides of the crop divider itself.
Over time, this “hair pinning” builds up into a thick mat until it blocks the smooth flow of crop into the agricultural harvesting head.
What is needed is an apparatus that more efficiently prevents the accumulation of crop plants on the crop divider. It is an object of this invention to provide such an apparatus.